When my nine-month old baby girl was in the emergency room with a spiral fracture of the right femur, we were also struggling with how to entertain our nineteen-month old son. As it got later and later in the night, I pushed a sleepy toddler in a stroller up and down the hospital corridors. We happened to stumble upon a cart of free books. Most of them were geared toward older children and adolescents... Baby Sitters Club series and such.
But I saw one slim paperback that looked like something I could, perhaps, read to my one year old. It was called Glaciers.
I had never read anything like it to my babies. We read all the time. But we read things more along the lines of Goodnight, Moon; The Runaway Bunny; Time for Bed; You Are Special, Little One; etc. This... this was... non-fiction.
And you know what? He adored it. He loved the simple text and real photographs. We read that book until it was tattered. (We still own the tattered copy, by the way.) We have since added eight more books by the same authors (Melvin and Gilda Berger).
Reading non-fiction with your children is just another way to embrace the joy and discovery of reading! Seeing their fascination as they learn new facts and formulate more questions about their world is a beautiful thing... every bit as beautiful as seeing them soothed by the gentle rhythms of bedtime stories or giggling at silly nursery rhymes.
Non-fiction for young children? Definitely works for me.
How about you? What are your favorite types of books to read with your children?
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